Our Hollow, Our Home - Hartsick album review

UK metalcore hopefuls prove risk-averse

Our Hollow, Our Home certainly know how to make an entrance. Their debut full-length kicks off with the dark, deathcore-tinged intro The Sea Will Sleep, all gutteral roars and slick, full production, before giving way to Loneshark’s squealing opening riff. It’s a promising start, but you know what they say about peaking too soon. From here on out, it’s largely nicely produced but safe metalcore, and the piano intro to Throne To The Wolves sounds puzzlingly like Coldplay’s Clocks.

Its post-hardcore-esque chorus is a saving grace, though. Deep, rumbling verses on Worms Wood and the title track give way to earnest crooning and riff-heavy choruses, and the mood switches dizzyingly between melodic death, modern metalcore and thrash-inspired fills. There are a lot of ideas going on – perhaps too many crammed into single songs – but Feast For The Crows is a good advert for what this band can do when they get really heavy. An instrumental interlude, The Wild Will Wait, ushers in a lighter sound, led by clean vocals and top-heavy guitars, yet despite the change in tone there’s little to really latch on to. Our Hollow, Our Home are playing with a lot of influences here, but they’re playing it safe.